...10 months...

Ten months!!! Can you believe it!? These last few months have absolutely been my favorite! The girls have been so fun...having some independence has been great for them! They are awesome little crawlers. Sometimes they crawl around pounding their little hands on the ground and making as much noise as they can, because they can. Sometimes they (mostly Lyla) crawl as fast as the possibly can. Sometimes they crawl around the house squealing as I chase them around.

They pull themselves up onto everything, especially my legs if I stop moving long enough...they would rather be held most of the time. They are practicing standing up on their own. It's cute to watch them stand themselves up and very carefully sit themselves back down. My mom bought them little cars that they can push around and they LOVE them. They play with them a lot - and a lot of the time they will actually try to walk with them. The only problem is that they aren't quite heavy enough in the front so they usually tip over when they try to walk with them.

For the 4th of July my aunt and uncle invited us up the mountain with them so we drove up to a reservoir and found a little camp spot with a little river running through it. We tried to let the girls stand in the water, but they did NOT want their feet in that cold water. They really wanted to touch it, though!

  

I thought I had a picture of Matthew with the girls as well, but I can't find it...once I do, I will try to remember to add it!

The girls got to go camping for the first time this month! We have some friends that bought a piece of land...on a mountain...somewhere...? Anyway, we took our trailer up and camped for a weekend. The girls did so good! They got to play with our friends' boys, they watched their daddy fish, we pulled out the "table bed" for them to sleep, and they slept really well, and they ate lots of dirt! It was a lot of fun! I am pretty sure these two are going to love to be outdoors as much as Matthew and I do! (Sorry I don't have any pictures...)

We bought them a little blow up pool, so we have played in that a couple of times. The first time, I filled up the pool, but didn't let it warm up enough. Lyla ended up having a lot of fun in it...

...but Alya HATED the cold water. She did not want to be in it at all. She didn't mind putting her hands in it, but she did not want to sit in it.

The next time we played in their pool, I filled it up fairly early in the morning, put it on a blanket on the driveway and let it sit until the afternoon. It was a little warmer this time, AND we had a buddy come over! My aunt brought the girls' cousin Jaiden to play with them. It was a lot of fun! They were so cute!

Our latest adventure was so much fun! My mom came down last week with my nephew and we took him, Lyla, Alya and Jaiden to the swimming pool. They had SO much fun! They walked into the water until it touched their stomachs and wanted to turn around.

 I also dunked them all the way under the water! They HATED it but man was it funny!

The girls have played so cute together this month. I have been busying myself around the house and they have just been playing in the room near me and entertaining themselves, and I often hear a giggle, and when I look at the girls, they are looking at each other and giggling at each other. It's so cute!

Lyla is still crazy. She is so funny! She loves to be outside and to be around people. Our neighbors babysit their grandkids, and every now and then, while we are hanging out in our front yard, the boys come over and play with the girls. The younger of the two boys LOVE the babies. He is so cute with them, and always wants to hold them, and Lyla loves it! :) She is such a social butterfly!

She has a dry spot on her lip that has really been starting to worry us. She's had it for the past six months, I think. Sometimes it looks like it's going to go away, but other times it looks terrible! I finally took her to the doctor today, and it looks like she has a little bit of eczema. While we were at the doctor's office, we had a chance to weigh her. She weights 19 lbs 10 oz. (Mind you that was fully clothes and diapered...but still.)

She has taken a new interest in pointing at everything! It is so cute! She loves to point at Mo, at pictures of her and her sister, at toys that she wants, etc. etc. She is also starting to point to objects in books as we read them, and recently the girls were in their car seats in the truck, and Matthew was standing next to Lyla's window making funny faces as them. Lyla loved it! She was smiling and chuckling, and then she looked over at Alya, and pointed to Matthew, as if to tell her to "look how funny Dad is!" It was amazing!

Lately, her favorite way to crawl around is with a toy...either in her mouth, or something flat and smooth that she can push around...that way her arms don't have to do anything but support her weight, and her legs do most of the work.

She has been so accident prone this month. Twice she has hit her mouth so hard she bled. She has had a number of goose eggs, and even had her finger shut in the baby gate.

She usually either wants the toys that Alya is playing with - not the ones you give her to play with - or she wants to play with Mo's bones/sticks. She is so interested in all things Mo. I actually think that more often than not, the noises she makes are directed at Mo. She just really loves him!

My baby girl is a little less clingy to me lately. In fact, Lyla has been a little more clingy to me than Alya has been. It's a little bitter sweet for me. I love that she is happy to be held by Matthew, or anyone really, but I secretly LOVED that she preferred me when it came to cuddles and being put down for bed.

She is SUCH a people watcher. It's funny to look back and think of her mannerisms from the beginning. She's always just been happy to sit and watch. At around three months, she was not happy to be held unless she was facing outward so she could see people and see what was going on around her. When they were learning to crawl, she was happy to wait and watch how Lyla would figure it out, and then she was able to figure it out.

She is pretty good at entertaining herself. As I said earlier, Lyla would rather play with the toy that Alya is playing with, so when Lyla takes her toys, Alya is pretty much un-phased, and just finds something else to play with. Don't you worry, though! She has her ways of picking on her older sister. She is pretty possessive of a couple of things. Their little cars that I told you about...there is one that is the "Little People" brand and one that is "The Little Mermaid." Hers is "The Little Mermaid" one. She doesn't really like it when Lyla is playing with that one. Lyla was playing with it the other day, and lifting up the seat, and every time she would lift the seat, Alya would push her hand away. They like to stand on the railing, and if Alya doesn't like where Lyla has placed her hands, she will rip them off of the railing. Sometimes no matter where Lyla puts her hands, Alya doesn't like it.

One of her favorite places to sneak off to is the laundry room...where Mo's food and water dishes are. Sometimes I will just let them play (if Mo's food is gone) with the dishes. Usually that ends in Mo's water dish dumped out, and two soaking wet babies. But they sure enjoy themselves!

Alya loves to play peek-a-boo, and pat-a-cake. One day, she crawled into our room and wrapped the drapes around her, and then she would open them and laugh at me, then wrap them back around her, and open them and laugh at me. It was another one of those simply amazing moments.

She likes to get into things that she really shouldn't be getting into. I need to do something about keeping my cupboards closed. Her favorite one to open is under the sink...where the Drain-o and other cleaners are stored. She doesn't open the cupboard with the baggies, or the one with the pots that she can bang on. Opening and closing drawers and cupboards can keep her entertained for quite a while!

I just can't believe how much I love these girls! You think you have an idea of how much you can love your kids - at least I always thought I knew how much I was going to love my kids. I knew I had never experienced how much I could love my kids, but now that I have kids, it's AMAZING to know and feel the love that I have for them! I was also talking to the girls' doctor, kind of about the same thing, but it was funny...he added a few emotions, and I agree with him 100%. He said that you have never known love, frustration, joy and exhaustion like you know it when you have kids. And I'm sure it'll just continue to develop as the girls get older. It's a little frightening, but so exciting at the same time.

I am sure that I will say something similar in the girls' 11 month post (I'll actually probably say it pretty much every day from now until their birthday - I think I even said it in their nine month post) but I CANNOT believe they are going to be a year old in just two months!! I am pretty excited about their birthday...I know we are going to have some really fun pictures and a great little party, and celebrating ONE YEAR with these amazing little beings is going to be the best ever, but it seriously breaks my heart! I miss my tiny little babies who had to be swaddled ALL THE TIME because they had no fat on their bones. I miss being able to cuddle with both of them at the same time. I miss changing the diaper of an immobile baby! Haha! But I LOVE that they have opinions, and that now when we get a chance to cuddle, it's because they WANT to cuddle with me. I love getting to know who these sweet girls are and learning their personalities. I love that we can make them laugh, and that they can laugh at/with each other. I love that they are mine!

It's just not a month-day post without a whole bunch of cute pictures to leave you with! Enjoy!